Author: WYATT T WALKER

Wyatt Tee Walker (born August 16, 1929) is pastor, national civil rights leader, theologian, and cultural historian. He was a Chief of Staff for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and in 1958 became an early board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He helped found the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) in 1958. As executive director of the SCLC from 1960 to 1964, Walker helped to bring the group to national prominence.

Walker started as pastor at historic Gillfield Baptist Church in Petersburg, VA, where he entered the Civil Rights Movement. For 37 years Dr. Walker was Senior Pastor at Canaan Baptist Church of Christ in Harlem, NY, where he also co-founded the Religious Action Network of Africa Action to oppose apartheid in South Africa, and chaired the Central Harlem Local Development Corporation.

Rev. Walker retired in 2004 with the title of Pastor Emeritus of Canaan Baptist Church. He lives in Virginia and teaches at the School of Theology at his alma mater Virginia Union University in Richmond.